NAWBA in Retrospect
The advent of the American working Bouvier movement in the early 1980s generated an emerging interest in a national level organization to provide mutual support, camaraderie, a venue for competition, the sharing of experience and the promotion of the Bouvier des Flandres as a serious working breed. Leading up the formation of NAWBA (the North American Working Bouvier Association) in 1986 there was significant discussion about the nature of this incipient organization. A few of us supported the hard core approach with focus on Schutzhund and perhaps other protection style sports; but this was brushed aside as impractical, the primary rationalization being that this format would attract very few members, that we needed to be open, to involve the existing Bouvier community. Thus the rationale from the beginning was to be inclusive, welcoming obedience trainers, carting enthusiasts, pet owners and dog show hobbyists. This led to a lack of focus, as exemplified by the incorporation of fun events such as cable driven rabbit chases to pander to pet owners. Within a few years, we were running conformation shows where dogs devoid of working credentials could become NAWBA conformation champions. We wanted to be popular, the implication being that we could convert these people down the road, that all we needed to do was draw them in and somehow, perhaps by magic, they would see the light. This broad, inclusive strategy preordained failure by projecting an image lacking in seriousness and credibility and by putting ultimate control in the hands of members with no serious understanding of or commitment to the police dog heritage. By pandering to pet owners we drove away potentially serious people, gave them reason to pass over the Bouvier in favor of other breeds perceived as more serious and credible.
Many implicitly believed that NAWBA would be transitional, that it could eventually be merged into an enlightened, unified American Bouvier club. For a time, Erik Houttuin served as president of both NAWBA and the American Bouvier club; but no evolution toward commonality in philosophy resulted. All of this proved to be a pipe dream based on nothing more than our wishful thinking, for the differences were at the most fundamental level irreconcilable. The increasingly hostile attitude of the AKC conformation hobbyists toward working dogs, the subservience of the AKC breed clubs and the general lack of a supportive culture in America were primary factors in this.
In retrospect, the fatal blunder was the inception of conformation competition, with a European judge providing a written critique of each dog according to their custom. Somehow we had convinced ourselves that all Europeans at some level were committed to actual working functionality as an inherent aspect of each breed, that they were concerned about more than just appearance. Many of us believed that European breed standards, often including high-sounding words about character, were according to these principles. Some of these Europeans – Chastel, du Mont, the Verheyens – were inspirational advocates and teachers. What we failed to comprehend was that these people – the good Europeans if you will – were fighting a losing battle of their own against the entrenched establishments within the national European clubs and the consequent decline of character among the European Bouviers. Chastel was to eventually, after some fifty years, break from the Belgian mother club over the work issue and the debasement of the character test, eventually dying as an isolated, lonely man.
We were so naive. We had childish, innocent faith in these Europeans, had no understanding that the Belgian, Dutch and French national Bouvier clubs, all FCI affiliated, were just as much pet and show based as the AKC and the American and Canadian Bouvier clubs. In reality, there was no real commitment to strong character or a robust, agile physical structure guided by working functionality.
The show people loved it. In the beginning, before any preliminary character requirements, they came in droves. Typically, the conformation event was on a Sunday; and they arrived after the working competition was finished with their little tables and put on their aprons to fluff and puff the coats. They took what they wanted, made up their back stories on the run, let learning opportunities and exposure to real dogs flow off their backs and went home to tell the world that their dogs were NAWBA approved, true working dogs, and that you could buy your next Schutzhund puppy with confidence from their vindicated show lines. But when these supposedly NAWBA endorsed puppies turned out to be lethargic, mostly interested in dinner and devoid of the requisite drives, their disappointed owners went on to other breeds, perceived as serious, or abandoned working the dogs. We had sacrificed our credibility, and the credibility of the Bouvier des Flandres, based on nothing more than self-delusion.
Gradually we came to realize that few European breeders and judges actually shared our ideals. The Dutch in particular were divided between the primarily police (KNPV) working lines and the show lines, emanating from distinct cultures and breeding pools. The Dutch show breeders did not even bother to pretend to care; there was an ongoing Bouvier popularity bubble in Holland and Americans were paying increasing prices for has been Dutch Champions, they were selling pups hand over fist at ever-increasing prices.
Younger readers may be to some extent mystified by this adulation of things European, but in this era, in the 1980s, there was no internet, international phone calls were outrageously expensive and very few Americans were able to afford the air fare and travel expense, and time away from work, for European travel. Europeans generally, and the working dog people in particular, were much less fluent in English than they have become today. Europe was idealized, and people from there, or having traveled there, tended to encourage these propensities in furtherance of their own influence and perceived stature. Just as European automobiles had the aura of sophistication, performance and sportiness; European dogs were just naturally assumed to be superior. The surest way to advancement in the American canine world was thus to be perceived as more European through the acquisition of the import and casual references to the last European trip and personal European connections.
Somehow, we believed we would draw uninitiated people in and show them the way, create a generation of working enthusiasts. We were dead wrong, for they wanted ratification, vindication, assurance that their pets also stood among the noble defenders of the Flemish plain. And they were egalitarian at their core, insisted that carting, obedience, dancing with dogs and virtually anything else was work too, that the instance on the protective potential was elitist nonsense, that all work was good even when it was only play and that their show dog progeny really were true Bouviers des Flandres. We became an association of pet owners and dog show hobbyists, each one with a vote as soon as their checks cleared. It was only a matter of time before leadership willing to pander to play and pet dog values emerged.
By the early 1990s people, primarily Frank McEniry and Chris Redenbach, were incessantly campaigning for character or temperament tests, patterned on those of the Belgian and French national Bouvier clubs. The rationale for these evaluations was patently false, obviously absurd to anyone with real experience. The pretense was that by subjecting untrained dogs to a set of tests and exercises and observing the reactions it is possible to identify inherent soundness and suitability for work, thus avoiding the time and effort necessary for actual training.
One of the primary problems with this is that the tests inevitably wind up being conducted by the show-oriented breeders who control the national clubs and others under their direct influence and control. Inexorably, these tests are watered down; general weaknesses in the show lines are dealt with not by selection in breeding but by weaker requirements and ever more lenient evaluation criteria. The weaknesses are simply swept under the rug and ignored.
As an example, in these tests the dog is required to engage the helper wearing the padded bite suit as a verification of courage and defensive potential. But it is often a sham. As an example, I was present in Belgium when Felix Grulois presented a bitch which exhibited marked avoidance of the helper, even though he averted his gaze and showed great weakness so as to encourage a response. Finally, Grulois just picked her up, touched her to the suit and she was passed, became certified. Nobody seemed to notice, it was just more business as usual. These tests degenerate because when you strip away the pretense and propaganda they are just taking turns certifying each other’s dogs. None of them give a damn about character, they just want show ring glory and to quickly sell puppies for the best possible price.
A further problem is that functional, useful working dogs must be trainable, willing partners. The propensity and willingness to build a working bond with the handler through training is the very essence of what makes the dog useful to mankind. Tests not involving training are thus incomplete, and when the certification does not require an actual working title such as a Ring, IPO or KNPV title they are without legitimacy. Everyone involved in real working dog breeding, training or deployment knows this fundamental fact; the problem is that the French and Belgian Bouvier breeders on the whole know very little about the realities of putting effective working dogs in service, and in their hearts simply do not care, are driven by the show win and the ability to sell pet dogs at the best price with the least personal effort or commitment.
In summary, these European tests are a sham, run by and for show breeders with little or no interest in or knowledge of character attributes prerequisite to a serious working dog. This came about because the French and Belgian clubs were by and for these same show breeders, who had systematically driven out working character dogs and people from their lines and their social structures. This NAWBA testing scheme was, when you got right down to it, a plan to replicate and promote the elaborate Belgian and French show breeder hoax. How could these people have been so blind, not seen that no real Bouviers were coming from Belgium or France, but primarily from the Dutch KNPV lines?
In reality what these would be American temperament testers wanted most was an unearned role with relevance and prestige. Rather than breeding, training and actually titling real working dogs they wanted to become respected persons, authorities who could grant validity to dogs without the work and effort of training. Somehow they seemed to believe that nobody would notice that this scheme had been a conspicuous failure and fraud in France and Belgium, virtually clearing these nations of working level Bouviers.
An underlying aspect to this scheme was the proposition, relentlessly promoted, that these Bouvier temperament testers should be selected and validated by these same proponents. It was claimed that the Bouvier character was somehow subtle and unique, that only these advocates had the insights, the empathy, to identify and certify the true Bouviers. But if the temperament test was to have validity, it is obvious that the testers should be impartial men or women with legitimate, respected working dog credentials, such as Schutzhund or IPO judges. You do not have to know Bouviers specifically to evaluate working character and performance; you need personal high-level credentials in successful training and competition.
These incipient testers just brushed aside the fact the French and Belgian tests were run by show breeders devoid of working knowledge or interest, whose kennels were filled with dogs on the whole insufficient to merit the name Bouvier des Flandres, could only be vindicated by a system in which standards were forever lowered to match what was in their kennels rather than breeding dogs with real character. In order to do this, they had to keep the evaluation process in their own hands rather than allow impartial outsiders with all breed experience and actual on the field accomplishments. In Belgium and France, the show breeders and their flunkies take turns validating the “character” of each other’s dogs, watering the breed down to nothing. This is the system that was replicated for NAWBA, leading directly to the NAWBA of today, an empty shell.
In the years leading up to 1996, NAWBA was on the surface large and prosperous, financially secure with upwards of 300 members, running large, economically viable national events usually with several serious Schutzhund III dogs vying for the championship. Almost all of the officers and board members had or would soon personally obtain a Schutzhund III title, mostly with American bred dogs trained from a pup. For several years, two NAWBA officers, Erik Houttuin and I, had also been AWDF officers or board members and there was strong NAWBA representation at all breed AWDF national championships. The Bouvier des Flandres was a breed emerging as a serious factor.
But by early 1996 the drum beat for the character test, the show breeders led by Marion Hubbard in the background, was increasing, and it was clear that my views were in the minority, that this would prevail. Although holding the office of president, I was no longer an effective leader able to convince the board or the populist elements of the membership – the majority – of my vision for the breed or the organization. I resigned my office to run with a new group in the upcoming election, putting the fate of the organization to the membership, which went on to elect the populist candidates and end my leadership involvement.
The future at this point had been increasingly obvious for several years. NAWBA as an entity able to evolve with the hard-core working values necessary to be relevant on an increasingly competitive American working dog scene, to have any chance of serving the working Bouvier ideal, was lost. My resignation and the not unexpected defeat in the election was a turning point. The decision to precipitate this crisis was based on the desire for a sharp, definitive break, the unwillingness to be associated in the judgment of history with the shameful debacle looming on the near horizon.
The 1996 election thus became a virtual referendum on the character test. Marion Hubbard was the driving force, and there was an active program to recruit new show and companion oriented members, who were immediately eligible to vote. Frank McEniry, primary advocate of the character test, was the presidential candidate. Ron Gordon, an aspiring professional dog trainer with no prior history with or actual interest in the Bouvier beyond these aspirations, was the vice presidential candidate. The Hubbards would have much preferred Gordon at the top, as he was being paid to train their dogs and thus a surrogate candidate representing their interests. The problem was that the NAWBA constitution had membership and other requirements for the office of president, which Gordon could not fulfill because he had become a member solely to run for office. Gordon was primarily interested in becoming a professional trainer and was thus willing to fulfill the desired role in order to advance this desire. (When this all fizzled out a couple years down the road, he just dropped off the face of the canine earth.)
In the beginning of this new regime, there was a surface show of cooperation and fellowship. The year 1997 was relatively quiet. McEniry ran the championship on his own field in Quebec, finally becoming working champion.
In 1998, the wheels came off. The west coast Hubbard faction wanted to run the annual championship on their own turf in California, but the NAWBA board selected the quad cities on the Iowa-Illinois boarder for the event. This was only the culmination of an ugly ongoing feud, for apparently Mr. McEniry actually thought he was president rather than one of Marion Hubbard’s flunkies. By March of 1998 it became official, Gordon was no longer vice president or even a member; he had simply walked away from his office. Indeed, walking away when the going got tough pretty much became Mr. Gordon’s signature maneuver.
The Hubbard faction immediately created their new Pacific Gateway Working Bouvier Club, with a “1st Annual Show and Trial” to be held June 12th thru 14th, 1998 at Rohnert Park just north San Francisco. Those conducting this event were listed as Pierre Lafond, Ron Gordon, Marion Hubbard and Georgia Edwards. Some of the very early announcements indicated that this was some sort of NAWBA regional club, but no such thing was provided for in the NAWBA constitution and this was never acknowledged by NAWBA.
The Hubbard faction had thus severed NAWBA into east and west coast factions, neither of which would ever again approach the size, influence or credibility that had existed prior to 1996. The last best chance for a viable North American working Bouvier community had been sacrificed on the altar of personal vanity and greed.
The 1998 NAWBA championships in western Illinois was a well-organized, successful event, although the conformation turnout was minimal. The working champion was Iron Xandra v Caya's Home, who we had imported from Caya as an untrained two year old, clearly one of our better acquisitions. Although the temperament committee had been a sham, with virtually no input to McEniry and Redenbach, their final plan was presented here, voted in shortly thereafter. NAWBA had degraded beyond the point of no return.
This marked the end of an era. Through the later 1990s there had generally been multiple Schutzhund III Bouviers vying for the championship, but future competitions became more and more a sham, eventually degrading into a publicity stunt, run by a commercial east coast breeder in literally her own back yard, selecting the judge and using her own protection helper. This also marked the end of my personal involvement, for shortly thereafter my membership was allowed to lapse. I was simply no longer willing to involve my name and reputation in what was rapidly evolving into a pet, show and play dog organization on the whole a detriment to the working Bouvier.
The 1999 Pacific Gateway event, in the North West, was a fiasco. The only real demonstration of fighting drive was an acrimonious, public confrontation between Ron Gordon and Pierre Lafond over the awarding of the championship title. It had been a dismal performance, with no passing Schutzhund entry and only a lonely Brevet in the French Ring competition. (The French Ring Brevet is not an actual working title but rather a preliminary qualification, comparable to the Schutzhund BH with the addition to a couple low stress bites.) Apparently, Lafond wanted to make a Ring dog champion for publicity and promotion purposes, but to have done so would have been a huge embarrassment in the eyes of any knowledgeable person, and most certainly an embarrassment for the breed.
At this point Pacific Gateway was in rapid decline, for although a 2000 event was planned for California at the last moment Gordon was compelled to send out a message cancelling it for the lack entries. This whole thing had been a fiasco from the inception; within months of creation they were offering free memberships in a desperate effort to generate some sort of credibility.
After the collapse of the 2000 championship, the organization more or less slipped into oblivion. Pierre Lafond, who had been fairly prominent as a French Ring Sport trainer, leader and participant for some twenty years, gave it all up and went back to Quebec to scratch out a living as a small time equipment maker. (There is no doubt a fascinating back-story to all of this; some interesting rumors do float around.) Ron Gordon got divorced, bailed out of California and shortly thereafter vanished from the working dog scene.
There was to have been a 2001 NAWBA championship in Denver, but it never got off the ground and was at the last minute cancelled by then president Erik Johnson. There was some sort of Denver championships pulled together in the spring of 2002, some six months late, after Johnson, another of the NAWBA saviors, also dropped off the face of the earth when the going got a little tough. The 2002 Championships were in Bethel, Connecticut October 3 through 6. (Records of the results of this event do not seem to exist. NAWBA was in such turmoil in these years that they have apparently just given up any effort to maintain their own records and history. Perhaps they simply find it too embarrassing to maintain records, preferring to make up pseudo history on the run.)
In 2003 NAWBA finally reached bottom, morphing into a virtual pet owner’s club pretending to be a working dog association. Kathy Heilenman in her role as NAWBA president, when directly challenged, publically and repeatedly refused to endorse the protective heritage of the breed, validate courage and fighting drive as fundamental aspects of what it means to be a Bouvier des Flandres. The predominating philosophy had become that play herding, obedience exhibition, carting and presumably dancing with dogs are every bit as valid as a Schutzhund or police title. The policy of the association thus became to recognize and validate virtually any activity as the work of the breed. But the whole point of a functional breed is specialization; the hunting dogs are bred and selected solely for their ability to hunt, the dogs actually bred and used by real herdsmen are bred strictly according to their herding effectiveness in a very specific set of circumstances and the police and military breeds are by tradition and by practical requirement tested in these functions as breeding and service prerequisites. If a dog is to be general purpose, all dogs good for everything, then there is no point in maintaining a breed at all, the person truly believing this would naturally just go to a shelter and get a dog of mixed or unknown ancestry, a generic all-purpose canine.
Heilenman’s personal interest was the style of herding trial increasingly common in amateur American herding trials, patterned after the Border Collie trials in the United Kingdom. Aside from the fact that the Bouvier progenitors were cattle guardians in North Eastern Flanders, an entirely different tradition and function, these British style trials were for herding work entirely different from what the tending breeds such as the Belgian and German Shepherds had historically done on the continent, where threats to the herd from predators extended well into the nineteenth century. While Heilenman was busy promoting a style of herding contrary to and inappropriate for the origins and character of the Bouvier, pretty much play herding, and marginalizing the police and protective functionality, she was not actually training Bouviers at all, was in fact training Border Collies. When Bouviers were not good enough for the NAWBA president how can it be any wonder that serious trainers were abandoning the cause, unfortunately often giving up the breed as well as the association?
Both the 2006 and 2007 championships were in North Carolina, dreary events with no passing Schutzhund III dog and thus no champion. There were no Schutzhund or French Ring entries for the 2007 event, forcing Charlie Price, president at the time, to cancel these events. It is perhaps the ultimate irony that NAWBA, founded to promote the working Bouvier, had become an organization with a conformation show but no serious working events at its own annual championship.
The 2008 event was apparently in Orlando, Florida in November, but no results seem to have been published. The 2009 NAWBA Championships were in Glenwood City, Wisconsin in September. There was only a single, lonely Schutzhund I entry and a couple of low level French Ring dogs participating.
From 2000 forward NAWBA has been increasingly dysfunctional. Seemingly every nobody has had a turn at being president, with very little continuity or leadership, more engaged in perennial infighting and seeking personal advantage than actually administrating the association. No long term planning or programs to advance the purposes of the association have been apparent.
The NAWBA web site has passed on from person to person with little transitional continuity, often losing content, continuity of style and historical information in the process. Several times the domain name was inadvertently allowed to expire, resulting in one of the parasite web hosting operations holding it for ransom. Even when a new internet domain identity is eventually established, all links from other sites are broken and the whole thing starts over from square one in terms of search engine recognition. The current site has no history of past championship winners, officers or financial records. More recently the officers have tended to be unknown people seeking a little visibility and self-promotion rather than people seriously capable of carrying on the operation of the association. Like vultures feeding on a carcass.
NAWBA today is an empty hulk, abandoned on the sea of irrelevance, lacking historical records, engaged office holders or credible championship events. The foundation in the early years was laid down by advocates also serious breeders, trainers and competitors; men and woman who had personally taken a pup or young dog to Schutzhund III. Today all we have is a dreary parade of canine world nobodies, mostly devoid of training or competitive credentials.
The intrinsic lesson of this dreary narration is that in order to create and maintain a breed with a serious working role – such as hunting, coursing or police and military style service – the community must breed, train and select exclusively focused on this functional role. Specific excellence in a defined role is ultimately the reason for creating and maintaining a breed; detracting from this selection process by including dogs with supposed capabilities in other venues fatally, inevitably, waters down the aggregate gene pool. The parallel reality is that the beauty show is a curse, an aggressive cancer that will take over and trivialize any real functionality in any breed; that working attributes and propensities are inexorably watered down for increasingly soft and weak show dogs.
Thus there must be a fundamental distinction between the primary reason for a breed, as in the protective heritage service dog, and other, ancillary, roles the dog may also serve. It is quite natural and desirable that breeds such as the German Shepherd or the Bouviers serve as family companions, specialized search dogs or in other secondary roles. But success in these side functions, no matter how spectacular, must never be seen as an adequate basis for breeding selection. Breeding must be according to the purpose of the breed, the police and military patrol dog, in order to carry on the heritage laid down by our founders.
The canine is an invaluable working partner because a breed can be created and molded by training, breeding and selection for specific service such as pointing out or retrieving game, transport as in sled dogs and as dedicated herd guardians. The retrieving dogs are selected entirely on their success in the hunt, the sled dogs are inexorably culled and selected to produce racing teams with speed, endurance and the ability to prosper in the harsh climate. The people driving this process are engaged, active practitioners, be it herding, guarding or police style work. It is their passion or the means of livelihood, of supporting their families and making their place in the social structure. In the beginning, this is often without formality; herding dogs were the dogs in the field doing herding work, typically of undocumented ancestry. The creation of formal breeds brings forth organizations to maintain a registry, facilitate communication and conduct examinations and competitions. In order to succeed, such an organization must have absolute focus on this specific process of breeding, selecting and then working in a unified venue. Allowing influence to others, such as pet owners and breeders for the show ring, dilutes and inevitably cripples this process, which ultimately is what brought NAWBA to the current dissipated state.
In order to prosper as a breed, the Bouvier des Flanders must be bred absolutely according to excellence in the role prescribed by the founders, that of police and military service dog. Breeding programs or organizations which allow any other consideration or recognize any other defining service or function contribute to the debasement of the breed and, ultimately, if allowed to persist, to the extinction of the breed. NAWBA failed because it did not adhere to this principle.
NAWBA emerged in the 1980s as the Bouvier component of a powerful grass roots enthusiasm for real dogs, specifically for Schutzhund, among a broad segment of Americans increasingly disillusioned with gait and bait dog shows and dreary, servile obedience as "work." But the inclusive, popularity seeking foundation of NAWBA was in the end the Achilles heel, ultimately led to control by show, play and pet oriented people and the withering of the organization, a process advancing rapidly at the turn of the twenty first century.
The names and original reputations of many iconic American corporations long out of their original business, such as Polaroid or RCA, live on as brand names on shoddy, third rate products, wringing the last cent of profit out of the innovation and creativity of their founders. In a similar way, NAWBA is being used to prop up a third rate kennel using the "championship" as a shoddy promotional event and as a means for people with no real credibility or place in the working dog world to pretend to importance by holding office in a derelict organization.